| Throughout history, mosquitoes have been responsible for the transmission of many devastating diseases which decimated many populations. In order to combat the population of mosquitoes, pesticides were, and still are, heavily used by communities at a health risk to exposed animals and humans. We are the first group to propose a potential method of mosquito control that deals with using Rabbit Chow as an oviposition attractant in home-made ovitraps. These traps are specific for Culex pipiens/restuans which are highly anthropophilic mosquitoes responsible for the majority of WNv infections in Ontario. In this preliminary study, 2007 egg rafts were collected and destroyed from only three ovitraps over a three week period. We believe that these traps have the potential to become a very efficient and safe novel method of mosquito control.;Oviposition and host selection for a blood meal by the female mosquito is controlled primarily by olfactory signaling via odorant receptors (OR) from the class of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). We have identified and cloned CxOR7, the first candidate member of the OR gene family from Cx. pipiens/restuans. This OR was found predominantly in neurons of olfactory appendages (i.e. antenna, proboscis and palps) and displays extremely high nucleotide conservation with CqOR7 (from the Southern WNv vector Cx. quinquefasciatus), AgOR7 (from the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae) and AaOR7 (from the Dengue virus vector Aedes aegypti ). These results suggest an evolutionarily conserved role for OR7 and may lead to novel approaches designed to reduce olfactory sensitivity, thus reducing vectorial capacity of mosquitoes by disrupting vector/host interactions. |
